All Science

Scientists and politicians inaugurated a new telescope array, known as ALMA, on Wednesday. The equipment should shed light on planet formation, according to researchers. It is located in Chile where skies are clean and dry, optimal for astronomy.

Rock samples gathered by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggest that the Red Planet could have supported microbial life at about the same time that life first appeared on Earth, meaning that any life on Mars, if there was any, could have predated, and possibly even seeded, life on Earth.

Representatives of 178 member countries of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora voted to put five more species of sharks and two species of manta rays under protection from overfishing.

Russian scientists say that they have detected an "unidentified and unclassified" bacterium from a giant lake locked under Antarctic ice. But some have suggested that the samples could have been contaminated.

The study, which also found the magnitude of the global temperature rise to be unmatched in 4,000 years, suggests that the current warming trend cannot be explained by naturally occurring temperature fluctuations.

A proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear parts was rejected at a Bangkok gathering of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species after being opposed by Canada, Greenland, and Norway.